How to Recreate a Pant Pattern

How To Recreate a Pant Pattern

We’ve all had that one pair of pants that fit just right- you know, that pair of pants that gave you a certain strut when you walked down the street.  Or in my case, when a friend comes strutting towards you wearing a pair of fabulous pants. What do you do? Ask to borrow them of course so you can recreate that pattern, and make new fabric and color variations!

Original Pant: High waist, flared leg, with front patch pockets.

For this style, I’m using the Italian Light Beige Solid Wool Suiting from moodfabrics.com.

Boxy crop top with drop shoulder – I made this top using an oversized t-shirt as my pattern. Striped poly fabric can also be found on moodfabrics.com.

First you want to get all of your measurements incase you need to adjust the size:

• Natural waist
• Hip
• Inseam from crotch to floor
• Out-seam from waist to floor

Now grab your pants and turn them inside out. This is the best way to get a good look at how they were constructed. Ok, so you have your pant front, pant back, waistband and maybe a pocket pattern.  You may also want to take note of all the notions, zippers, buttons etc.

Step 1 Pant Front:

Fold pants in half, lengthwise then pinch at crotch seam to determine pattern shape.

Lay the pants flat directly onto your pattern paper where you will trace the outline. Be patient as you adjust the pants to trace the outline. Make sure to account for the seam allowance. You can even pin the pants down to the paper to prevent them from sliding around. Start at the top- (bottom of waistband) and trace down the CF seam. Continue along the length of the pants.

Continue down the side seams and around to the other side using your elongated french curve for shaping.

Here’s my finished front pattern.

Make sure to label all of your pattern pieces and include the size- Front, Cut 2 out of Fabric.

Step 2 Pant Back:

Now Let’s trace the back pant pattern. Flip the pants over to the back. Make sure to pinch at the crotch and adjust and straighten out the back seam.

There’s a dart in the back so there’s a slight adjustment we need to make. Here’s how:

Measure the width and the length of the dart that is sewn in the pant.

Trace the back pant just as we did with the front. Once you have the completed shape, we’ll need to add in our dart measurement.

After you add the dart, retrace and blend in the additional measurement.

Now let’s mark off a little notch for our zipper placement.  Measure zipper to be sure of length.

Label: Back, Cut 2 out of Fabric.

Step 3 Waistband:

Now all we have to do is trace out our waistband. The measurements are pretty straightforward and should match your waist measurements. Make sure to label pieces:

Waistband Front cut 2 of fabric on fold/Cut 2 of Facing on fold.

Waistband Back cut 2 of fabric on fold/Cut 2 of Facing on fold.

Step 4 pockets:

The last pattern left to recreate is the pocket. I have 2 large patch rectangular pockets at front with flaps so the shape is pretty easy to achieve. I just used my ruler to measure, then drew it out on the pattern paper including my seam allowances.

You should now have all your pattern pieces and are ready sew them together, happy sewing!